Three delightfully gorgeous Powers covers. And one stunning John Schoenherr cover despite the unknown quality of the short stories within….

A short story collection and a three novella collection by Walter M. Miller, Jr., the author of A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959)… A scathing, and hilarious satire by Frederik Pohl and Lester del Rey… Among others.

From the inside flap: “A visitor from outer space meets his match in a Southern cracker-woman. A baby’s brain, growing up in a computer threatens to destroy the world. The compleat servo-machanistic city with one helpless technician at its mercy.”

2. Conditionally Human, Walter M. Miller, Jr. (1962)

(Richard Powers’ cover for the 1962 edition)

From the inside flap: “Which is more important — the life of a dog (even a very smart, very long-lived dog) or of a child? No question, surely — unless you’re not allowed to have kids.

How much courage does it take to maintain the dignity of man? Is it just a question of adaptibility, or does it have to take a life?

Where does tolerance end and true acceptance begin? Where skin, everyone’s skin, becomes a scaly grey horror? Or does one beed some private, personal motive for growing up?”

From the back cover: “THE WALL AROUND THE WORLD was too high for anyone to get over –until Porgie gimmicked his broomstick… THE MASTERS couldn’t figure out why the last man on Earth liked to sleep in a coffin… INVASION REPORT! — and the only force between Earth and the Invaders was a bunch of kids playing spaceman… THE SPECTER GENERAL hadn’t been around for centuries — but he wasn’t forgotten…”

From the back cover: “The Company was a powerful, efficient, and monstrous organization that controlled the entire world, scientifically regulating everything in life: war, epidemics, one-a-day food pills and test-tube sex… all through the use of its patented, terrifying human deep-freeze vault.”

From the back cover: “The mystery of planet Earth. The Emperor had no more dovted Armsman than Gunner Cade. In this warped civilization of murder and death, cade fought as he expected to, killed as he was expected to, destroying enemy after enemy until he himself was show down in honorable battle. But Cade did not die. After weeks of unconsciousness, he awoke to find he was a fugitive the object of a world-wide manhunt. Why was it so important to silence him? What undiscovered secret did he possess as he desperately fled over the earth and into outer space? And cade began to realize that he held in his hands the fate of all mankind…”

I had already bought a copy of the The View From the Stars with the Powers cover from ABE before you posted this and now I cannot wait until it gets here, it is great cover. Now I am very tempted to add the Cogswell to my next group books to be purchased.

My father just read the Cogswell volume (from whom I got my copy) and he said it was incredibly average — but, I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting much more. I’ll read it eventually…. But yes, the Schoenerr cover is wonderful.